Process of manufacturing carburetted water gas by the use of high carbon and low carbon oil



June 26, 1934. J, A, PERRY PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING CAHBURETTED WATERGAS BY THE uss OF HIGH CARBON AND LOW CARBON OIL Filed Nov. 20, 1929W/TA/ESS:

Patented June 26, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PROCESS OF MANU HIGHCARBON AND Joseph A. Perry, United Gas FACTURING CARBU- RET'IED WATERGAS BY THE USE OF LOW CARBON OIL Swarthmore, Pa., assignor to TheImprovement Company, Philadel- 3 Claims.

The present invention relates to the manufacture of carburetted watergas.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a method ofmanufacturing carburetted water gas whereby oils which produce onvaporization relatively large quantities of coke as, for instance,Mexican or Venezuela crude or topped oils, may be used to greateradvantage in carburetting than heretofore.

It is advantageous to use such oils if it can be done efliciently andconveniently because of their cheapness. If, however, it is attempted touse them in accordance with usual carburetted water gas practice, thatis by spraying them into a checker filled carburetter, the largequantities of deposited coke clog the checker brick and require toofrequent cleanings for economical operation.

It has been proposed to-spray such oils during the water gas run ontothe top of the generator fuel bed, utilizing the heat stored in the fuelbed and the heat in the up run water gas to vaporize them, the cokebeing deposited in the fuel bed and eventually being consumed with thefuel.

However, I have found that in the normal operation of the water gasgenerator, with the air blast and steam, proportioned for propergenerator fuel economy, sufiicient heat is not available in the top ofthe fuel bed for the vaporization of sufficient oil to carburet thewater gas to present calorific power standards for town distribution.

Suflicient oil can be vaporized on the top of the fuel bed for thispurpose, by resorting to various expedients, such as secondary airblasting of the 8 top of the fuel bed, prolonging the primary air blast,etc., but these have an unfavorable efiect upon generator fuel economy.

According to the present invention, I restrict the introduction of highcarbon oil to the top of the. generator fuel bed, to the quantity whichcan be efiiciently vaporized during the water gas run, with due regardto generator fuel economy, thereby partially carburetting the gas in thegenerator. I then lead the partially carburetted gas through thecustomary carburetting vessels, where I complete its carburetion withlower carbon oil such, for instance, as is termed gas oil, and which canbe handled in the usual carburetting' vessels without undue clogging ofthe checker brick.

Throughout the specification and claims the term high carbon oil is usedas referring to oil which contains a high proportion of carbon which isdeposited as coke when the'oil is used for carburetting in the set.Similarly, the term low carbon oil is used for oil which contains a lowproportion of carbon which is deposited as coke when using the oil forcarburetting in the set.

As less burden is thrown on the carburetting vessels in vaporizationthan in usual carburetted water gas practice, in which all the oil isvaporized therein, I am able to recuperate the heat stored therein tobetter advantage by reversely steaming the set as a whole during thedown run, without unduly affecting the temperatures in the carburettingvessels. In the usual carburetting operation, when making a carburettedwater gas of high calorific power for distribution, it is difficult totake full advantage of this reverse steaming, because of its adverseeffect on oil efficiencies.

This reverse steaming aids in drying up or coking theresidues of theheavy oil sprayed on the top of the generator fuel bed during the uprun.

The invention will be further described in connection with the attacheddrawing which forms a part of this specification and which shows apartial side elevation and partial vertical cross section of apparatusin which the invention may be conveniently performed.

Referring to the drawing:

1 generally indicates a water gas generator, 2 is a carburetter, 3 asuperheater and 4 a wash box.

The generator is provided with the ignited fuel bed 5, and with the airblast supply means 6 for upwardly blasting the fuel bed. 7 is a steamsupply means for up steaming, 8 is a steam supply means for downsteaming. The generator is further provided with the down run water gasofitake 9 provided with valve 10 and leading from the base of the fuelbed to the wash box 4. There is further provision of the gas offtake 11leading from above the fuel bed to the carburetter 2. The generator isalso provided with the oil supply means 12 for spraying high carbon oilonto the top of the fuel bed.

The carburetter 2 is provided with the checker brick l3 and with the oilsupply means 14 for spraying low carbon oil onto the carburetter. Thecarburetter is connected to the superheater 3 by connection 15. 16 is anair supply means for supplying secondary air.

The superheater is provided with the checker brick l7 and with the stackvalve 18. The superheater is further provided with the ofitake 19provided with valve 20 leading to the wash box 4. 21 is a steam supplymeans for reversely steaming the set during the down run.

The wash box 4 is provided with the offtake 22 leading to storage orother disposal.

In operation, the preferred method is as follows:

The generator fuel bed is blasted with air supplied through 6, theresultant blast gases passing through the carburetter and superheaterand are burned therein to store their heat, secondary air being suppliedthrough 16. The burned blast gases leave the set through the stack valve18, or through a waste heat boiler (not shown).

When the desired quantity of heat has been stored in the fuel bed and inthe carburetter and superheater, the air blast is discontinued and thestack valve closed. Then with valve 20 open and valve 10 closed, thefuel bed is upwardly steamed with steam supplied through '7 to producewater gas. At the same time, high carbon oil is sprayed into the top ofthe generator onto the top of the fuel bed and vaporized by the heatstored therein, by the radiant heat from the walls of the generatorabove the fuel bed, and by the sensible heat of the water gas, risingthrough and out of the top of the fuel bed. I prefer to introduce allthe high carbon oil to be vaporized during the run at a high rate duringthe first part of the uprun, so as to prolong the time the oil is incontact with the fuel bed, and secure the greater part of the availabletime for its vaporization.

The water gas passing through the top of the generator is carburetted bythe oil vapors resulting from the above vaporization, and passes to thecarburetter and superheater and thence to the wash box.

During the first part of the steam run, while the high carbon oil isbeing introduced to the generator at a high rate, there is a relativelyhigh generation of oil vapors and at this time I prefer not to introducethe lower coke oil to the carburetter, instead, both the carburetter andsuperheater are employed for fixing.

During the latter part of the steam run, when the generation of oilvapor in the generator has decreased, I introduce the low carbon oil tothe carburetter, and there further carburet the partially carburettedgas passing from the generator. The resultant vapors are fixed in thecarburetter and superheater.

In the above operation, it will be understood that the oil which hasbeen sprayed on the fuel bed continues to generate oil vapors in the topof the generator after the admission of the oil to the generator hasbeen terminated.

After the steam uprun, I prefer to make a down run through the fuel bedby reversely steaming the set, steam being admitted to the superheaterat 21. The steam is superheated in the superheater and carburetter andreturns heat to the fuel bed. The superheated steam passing through thetop of the fuel bed aids in completing the coking of the residues of thehigh carbon oil sprayed on the top of the fuel bed, and prevents theloss of volatiles in the next air blasting operation. These volatilesare carried through the water gas zone where they are cracked. Thecracked gases passing out from the base of the generator to the wash boxwith the water gas, the free carbon released by the cracking remaininglargely in the fuel bed and adding thereto.

Instead of waiting until after the termination of the admission of highcarbon oil to the generator for the introduction of the lower carbon oilto the carburetter, it may be desirable to conduct the two operationssimultaneously.

In such case, I prefer to introduce the high carbon oil quickly at ahigh rate at the start of the steam run, and introduce the low carbonoil at a low rate at first, increasing this rate as the oil vaporizationin the generator decreases.

In its broader aspects, however, the invention includes providing andmaintaining an ignited fuel bed by appropriate air blasting, burning theresultant blast gases with air and storing their heat in a chamber orchambers provided with heat storage material, generating blue water gasby steaming the ignited fuel bed and carburetting the blue water gas byhigh carbon oil sprayed onto the top of the fuel bed and by low carbonoil sprayed into the heat storage chamber or chambers.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the invention hasthe merit of being readily performed in the so called standard water gasset consisting of a generator, carburetter and superheater, without thenecessity of expensive changes of connections. While it may be mostadvantageously employed in a set having means for reverse steaming theentire set, as illustrated in the drawing, it may be performed in theolder type of set having a connection from the base of the generator tothe top of the carburetter, in which case low carbon oil may beadvantageously admitted to the carburetter during the down run as wellas the uprun.

As used throughout the specification and claims, of this application,the terms generator, carburetter and superheater refer more particularlyto zones or locations in which the operation of generating gas,carburetting gas, and fixing the s carburetted gas, may be performed.Such zones may be contained in apparatus of the standard three shelltype, or of the two shell type or in a single shell.

I claim:

1. A process of manufacturing carburetted water gas in a set comprisinga generator adapted to contain a solid fuel bed, a carburetter, and asuperheater, which comprises the following separate, successive steps:air blasting the fuel bed in the generator and storing the heat of theblast gases in the carburetter and in the superheater; making an uprunwith steam introduced to the bottom of the generator, simultaneouslyintroducing heavy carbon oil to the top of the fuel bed at a diminishingrate, and simultaneously introducing lower carbon oil to the carburetterat an increasing rate, and leading the water gas produced in thegenerator through the carburetter and through the superheater wherebycarburetted water gas is produced.

2. A process of manufacturing carburetted water gas in a set comprisinga generator adapted to contain a solid fuel bed, a carburetter, and asuperheater, which comprises the following separate, successive steps:air blasting the fuel bed in the generator and storing the heat of theblast gases in the carburetter and in the superheater; making an uprunwith steam introduced to the bottom of the generator, simultaneouslyintroducing heavy carbon oil to the top of the fuel bed at a diminishingrate, and simultaneously introducing lower carbon oil to the carburetterat an increasing rate, leading the water gas produced in the generatorthrough the carburetter and through the superheater whereby carburettedwater gas is produced; and then introducing steam to the superheater,passing the steam through the superheater and through the carburetterand 150 the uprun carburetting the resultant water gas with high carbonoil introduced to the top of the fuel bed and low carbon oil introducedto the carburetter, the greater part of the high carbon oil beingintroduced during the first half of the run and the greater part of thelow carbon oil being introduced during the latter part of the run, andleading off the resultant carburetted water gas from the superheater.

JOSEPH A. PERRY.

